Tina Turner Tells Oprah Her Touring Days Are Over

Last night (Aug. 25) while VMA madness was overtaking music fans of a different generation, Tina Turner appeared on Oprah’s Next Chapterand admitted that she doesn’t have any plans to come out of retirement.

Turner admitted that her high-energy performances were anything but effortless. She told Oprah that during her 50th anniversary tour in 2008, she had to sometimes spend a whole day resting to have the energy to take the stage.

The 73-year-old, who recently married her longtime beau in Switzerland, said it’s not that she doesn’t like performing anymore, but that she was “becoming tired of singing and dancing.”

While she loved performing certain songs like “Proud Mary,” “Simply The Best,” “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” others worked her a little harder. We’ll assume this had a lot to do with the fact that she was dancing in 4-inch heels.

She didn’t rule out touring totally, but told Oprah if she was to return to the stage, she’d have to create “another way that will get people to accept” since, as she points out, most people want to see Turner dancing. “I don’t think they would accept me standing in a great gown,” she said. “That’s not me.”

As for the word she’d use to describe her legacy, she said it would be endurance.

“I endured hardship all the way,” Turner said, noting that she was always focused and never drank or did drugs throughout her career. “I stayed on course from the beginning to the end because I believe in something inside of me, that told me, that it can get better…and I wanted better”

Turner’s last studio album, Twenty Four Seven, came out in 1999.

Shannon Carlin

Shannon Carlin
Shannon is an associate music producer for Radio.com. She previously worked as the music editor for Beyond Race Magazine, before earning a master's degree from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. While interning at NPR she wrote...